This 25-year-old is trying to become the first Swiss U.S. Women’s Open champ

You’ve probably never heard of Chiara Tamburlini, and she knows you haven’t heard of her. “I feel like no one knows my name, which is okay,” the 25-year-old hailing from Switzerland says. The relative unknown is near the top of the leaderboard at the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills.

She posted rounds of 69 and 71 to enter the weekend at four under, four shots behind leader Mao Saigo. Were she to surge to the top of the leaderboard come Sunday, she’d become the first U.S. Women’s Open Champion from Switzerland.

Tamburlini grew up playing junior golf in Europe and came to the U.S. for college in 2019. She played four years at Ole Miss, with her team winning the NCAA team title in 2021. After graduating in 2023, she turned pro and joined the LET Access Series, the developmental tour for the Ladies European Tour. In her third event on that tour, she won. At the end of the season, she was ranked high enough to earn her LET card for 2024. And she has been a force out there.

She won three times in her inaugural season, earning Rookie of the Year honors. From there, she took the next natural step: LPGA Q Series. She came up short, and is back on the LET for the 2025 season. There, she’s had five top-10 finishes thus far in 2025. Tamburlini knows her results on the LET matter.

“That's good golf no matter which tour you play, no matter which golf course you play, so I think I was really able to bring that with me for the first two days now,” Tamburlini said.

“It's been my goal now to try and bring that game over to the U.S. to bigger events as well,” Tamburlini said.

Her first attempt at bringing her game to the states this year didn’t go as planned. She played in the first women’s major of the year, the Chevron Championship, and missed the cut. But she isn’t concerned. She chalks it up to a learning experience.

“I've earned my spot to be here and I don't need to be too intimidated by everybody else,” Tamburlini said.

She certainly isn’t playing intimidated. She’s doing what you have to do to be near the top of the leaderboard at U.S. Women’s Open: Hitting it straight enough off the tee and gaining strokes on the field around the greens. She’s gained 2.41 strokes in chipping (where she’s ranked first in the field), and 1.17 strokes in putting. Even with these stats, she saw more opportunities on the course.

“I had a lot of birdie chances, especially on the front nine,” Tamburlini said after her second round. “Lost patience a little bit because I felt like I was hitting incredible putts and just nothing seemed to be going in.”

These things happen at a U.S. Women’s Open – but how would Tamburlini know that? This is her first time competing in the championship.

“It's my first ever U.S. Open. I'm loving it,” Tamburlini said. “I know the course is tough, but I feel like it’s the type of course where you get rewarded for good shots. It's not ridiculous to where you can hit your shots and be completely screwed. So I think that's really nice.”

Erin Hills has played tough, with its high rough and massive, undulating greens. But rain is in the forecast, so the course will get softer. The greens will become more generous in holding approach shots, and they won’t run as fast. But Tamburlini isn’t going to let her guard down.

“I think they'll definitely get more gettable, probably, but I think it's also a fine line of getting too greedy,” Tamburlini said. “I think it's going to be important to kind of manage those expectations as well.”

Tamburlini’s self-awareness comes in part from one of the most important parts of her game: She likes to have fun, she likes to enjoy herself. Players like that tend to have the ability to see a broader view of their round. They don’t get bogged down by a bad shot, putting them aside and making room for better golf to come.

“I like to be quite loose,” she said. “Of course I'm focused and competitive when I hit the shots, but I like to have fun in between the shots as well.”

You’ll see her chatting and laughing with her caddie, Zack Byrd, throughout the weekend. Byrd was Tamburlini’s assistant coach at Ole Miss.

“Having Zack on the bag definitely calmed my nerves a little bit,” she said.

Tamburlini will need that help throughout the weekend. Cutting the tension between shots at the U.S. Women’s Open helps diminish the stress as well as helping help players manage their energy over four long days.

Tamburlini might not care that you don’t know who she is, but after the weekend, everyone might know.